WC Countdown: The best players who are left out of the World Cup

The first sign that the World Cup is close are the squad lists. Until then, we hear rumors, we still watch end of season in a club football, we comment on players who got injured and won’t feature, but the real excitement starts when a national manager comes out and hands over a list of travelers to the World Cup. And the feeling of finding out those 26 names is one of excitement, but the absence of some names creates excitement as well. All fans, TV pundits and former managers/players are commenting on absent footballers and criticize/support national coaches in their decision. This World Cup is not different from any other in that matter.

WC Countdown: Best 11 Africans playing for other teams

There are various reasons for excluding some players and national coaches are trying to explain that. Some of them even admit that they haven’t called the most talented players (Thomas Tuchel), some are just keep calling the same players which were regulars during qualifications, some of them act totally opposite. Some managers are counting deeds from the past, while others are only counting current form. Coaches also tend to start a generation change right before the World Cup and exclude some veterans, while others do a totally opposite thing. All participants at the 2026 World Cup have excluded somebody, but we decided to focus on the favorites to win the competition, in order to avoid a marathon-like article. Also, the amount of famous footballers who are left out are usually visible only in the most strongest teams. That is why we focused on Spain, France, England, Brazil, Argentina, Portugal, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium and Morocco.

Foreign coaches have never won the World Cup

Again, just like we did when we chose the 11 best Africans not playing for African countries, we decided on 4-3-2-1 formation, considering the vast number of excellent midfielders/wingers.

Defense: Nick Pope (England), Benjamin Pavard (France), Eder Militao (Brazil), Robin Le Normand (Spain), Jeremie Frimpong (Netherlands)

Midifeld: Eduardo Camavinga (France), Cole Palmer (England), Morgan Gibbs-White (England), Paolo Dybala (Argentina), Estevao (Brazil)

Attack: Joao Pedro (Brazil)

Now, let’s look now many excellent players have been left out from these World Cup favorites….

England

Nick Pope, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Harry Maguire, Levi Colwill, Luke Shaw, Cole Palmer, Adam Wharton, Morgan Gibbs-White, Phil Foden, Myles Lewis-Skelly, Jarrod Bowen

France:

Lucas Chevalier, Benjamin Pavard, Leny Yoro, Castello Lukeba, Adrien Truffert, Khephren Thuram, Eduardo Camavinga, Corentin Tolisso, Florian Thauvin, Eli Junior Kroupi, Wesley Fofana, Kolo Muani, Mathys Tel...

Spain

Robert Sanchez, Cristhian Mosquera, Dean Huijsen, Robin Le Normand, Alvaro Carreras, Nico Gonzalez, Javi Guerra, Pablo Barrios, Jorge de Frutos, Raul Asensio, Dani Carvajal, Gonzalo Garcia...

Brazil

Lucas Perri, Vanderson, Eder Militao, Thiago Silva, Alex Telles, Andrey Santos, Ederson, Rodrygo, Estevao, Savinho, Joao Pedro, Richarlison...

Argentina

Santiago Beltran, Kevin Mac Allister, Lisandro Lopez, Marcos Senesi, Valentin Gomez, Milton Delgado, Maximo Perrone, Franco Mastantuono, Paolo Dybala, Alejandro Garnacho, Joaquin Panichelli…

Germany

Jonas Urbig, Yann Aurel Bisseck, Maximilian Mittelstadt, Tom Bischof, Robert Andrich, Julian Brandt, Said El Mala, Karim Adeyemi, Niclas Fullkrug, Tim Kleindienst, Jonathan Burkardt, Kevin Schade…

Portugal

Joao Palhinha, Geovany Quenda, Matheus Fernandes, Raphael Guerreiro, Rodrigo Mora...

Belgium

Lois Openda, Romeo Lavia, Matz Sels, Mika Godts, Lucas Stassin...

Morocco

Youssef En‑Nesyri, Hakim Ziyech, Sofiane Boufal…

Netherlands

Jeremie Frimpong, Sven Botman, Joey Veerman, Zian Flemming, Ian Maatsen…

WORLD CUP - GROUP STAGE

First round

Thursday, 11.06.

22.00: (1.50) Mexico (4.00) S.Africa (7.25)

Friday, 12. 06.

05.00: (2.70) S.Korea (3.10) Czech R. (2.75)

22.00: (1.85) Canada (3.70) B&H (4.25)

Saturday, 13.06.

04.00: (2.05) USA (3.35) Paraguay (3.80)

22.00: (12.0) Qatar (5.40) Switzerland (1.28)

Sunday, 14.06.

01.00: (1.62) Brazil (3.80) Morocco (5.80)

04.00: (6.80) Haiti (4.45) Scotland (1.47

07.00: (4.50) Australia (3.50) Turkey (1.83)

20.00: (1.03) Germany (15.0) Curacao (50.0)

02.00: (2.10) Netherlands (3.45) Japan (3.50)

***odds are subject to change***